The Melting Pot Meltdown

Multiculturalists and "open borders" immigration enthusiasts like to remind is that America is made up of all different kinds of people who came here from all over the world. Of course, the multiculturalists want to obliterate the very Western culture that made the U.S. the wealthiest nation in history, and the open borders crowd want cheap labor even if it destroys the country for which they feel very little actual - it is, after all, a "proposition nation," not one borne of blood, language, land or culture. As it turns out, the one cherished myth that the open borders crowd like to tout - after abusing the historical facts to their advantage most, the melting pot, apparently ceases to work while their policies are in effect.

Increasingly, a new study shows, U.S.-born Asians and Hispanics are choosing to wed foreign-born members of their own ethnicity. At the same time, greater numbers of new immigrants are marrying among themselves.

Some sociologists believe the shift could have significant implications: It could signal a widening gap between the races. Or, in another view, it could reflect growing pride among minority peoples.

There's no question what has fueled the trend. The 11 million immigrants who arrived in the 1990s dramatically increased the same-ethnicity pool of potential mates. Hispanics are the country's fastest-growing minority group, Asians the second-fastest.

This would have been self-evident to Americans living 100 years ago, which is why, after each great migration (from Italy, Eastern Europe, Ireland, or Scandanavia) immigration restrictions were imposed, and why after 1924 virtually all immigration was halted - to give the majority culture time to assimilate the new immigrants. When you keep the flood gates open, filling the nation will millions of more aliens, the new immigrants have less and less reason to assimilate (by marriage or any other means) since their growing numbers make it easier for them to stay together and give them added political clout.

Thus, the result of mass immigration should not be surprising.

Using census data from 1990 and 2000, Qian and Lichter identified "unprecedented declines in intermarriage with whites, and big increases in marriages between native- and foreign-born members of Asian and Hispanic ethnicities." Their study findings were recently published in the American Sociological Review.

In 10 years, the percentage of Hispanics who married outside their ethnicity fell to 19.9 from 26.9. The decline among Asians was even greater, 33.2 percent compared with 41.7 percent.

Meanwhile, among marriages between people of the same ethnicity, pairings between native- and foreign-born rose 50 percent for Asians and 9 percent for Hispanics.

Scholars wonder how the trend could affect race relations. For decades, Lichter and Qian note, people have tended to view rising rates of intermarriage as a sign of growing acceptance between peoples of different color and culture.

"You could argue that recent immigration is creating a kind of balkanization," Lichter said.

That is exactly what it is causing. The more diverse the population becomes, the less unified it will be; the result will be ever greater levels of racial tension and, eventually, violence. This can already be seen in high-immigration areas.

But not to worry. This is exactly the result the multiculturalists want.

"Most people prefer to marry someone with whom they have a lot in common - heritage, culture, values, customs, habits, language and appearance," said B.J. Gallagher, an L.A. sociologist who specializes in diversity issues. "It's not a bad thing. It's a natural thing."

Marc Lamont Hill, who teaches urban education at Temple University, sees the increase in same-culture marriages as "absolutely a good thing."

"We've been taught that white people, and particularly white women, are the standard for beauty and attractiveness," Hill said. Marrying within ethnicity is a way of moving beyond that, he said.

Debbie Wei, who was born in New York, now is principal of the Folk Arts Cultural Treasure School in Philadelphia, said that when she was growing up, "there was a lot of pressure not to date Asian men. Some of it was internalized racism."

Back then, in the late '60s, the Asians she saw in the media were cartoon figures like Hop Sing, the Cartwright family's cook on "Bonanza," or exoticized sexpots like Suzy Wong.

It was during a trip to Hong Kong, taken to recover her lost language and culture, that she met the man she would marry, Ming Chau. The couple, both about to turn 50, celebrated their 25th anniversary this year.

Chau said he never imagined he might wed an American, and never saw Wei as being one.

"I didn't think, 'She's foreign-born,'" he said. "She's Chinese."

Naturally. The goal of mass immigration, embraced delivberately by multiculturalists, and unwittingly by Wall Street Journal "open borders" types, is to gradually errode, and ultimately, erase the American identity altogether.

The progress toward this goal is more visible every day.